Long before they became breakout stars on the Batman: The Long Halloween, the team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale honed their long-form revisionist mysteries style on Challengers of the Unknown.

The limited series focuses on the aftermath of an unintentional tragedy that disbanded the titular Silver Age super team. Booster Gold never appeared in any of the mini-series' 8-issues, but Skeets did. Kind of.

Challengers of the Unknown #5, 1991

Metal Men? Inferior Five? Ragman? Brother Power the Geek? That's quite an odd assortment of lesser-known DC heroes. And that's Guy's point. When he made the statement in 1991, those characters had been barely seen for years.

Other than a single panel cameo alongside other Silver Age castaways in Millennium #8 (1988), the Challengers hadn't been seen since Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986, and few of the others had done much better.

In fact, the only character Guy lists who had accrued any significant post-Crisis continuity was Skeets, who had been the sidekick of DC's first post-Crisis hero in 1986. Skeets was mothballed after the cancellation of Booster Gold volume 1 in 1988 and had ever since been stored in a JLI closet (as revealed in Adventures of Superman #476, 1991).

So while it seems like Guy is just being a jerk to reporter Harold Moffet, I like to think he's really concerned about the missing Skeets' welfare. What a good Guy!

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: challengers of the unknown guy gardner jeph loeb talking booster gold tim sale

With the latest Superman event, "Leviathan," now unfolding in your Local Comic Shop, it's interesting to look back at another Superman event story with a curious connection to real history.

The JLA: Our Worlds At War one-shot, released 18 years ago today, was a middle chapter in the 2001 Superman "Out Worlds At War" crossover event. Booster Gold plays only a very brief role in the event as he, Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, and Rocket Red fight to defend Russia from an alien invasion. This is Booster's only appearance in the entire comic:

art by Garney, Morales, Horie, Horie, and Starkings

(Don't worry, Booster. Guy get's better.)

It isn't the inclusion of the Justice League International that makes this issue a historic curiosity.

As mentioned, the issue's story details a surprise attack by a malignant force that opposes everything Superman stands for. To frame the magnitude and severity of this invasion, writer Jeph Loeb uses the words of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to draw a direct, overt connection to a real tragedy in American history, specifically the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier.

The irony here is that although this issue, with its focus on surprise attacks against America, was released on July 5, it has a cover date of September 2001.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle guy gardner imperiex jeph loeb our worlds at war rocket red superman